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Saying Cheese is a method employed by photographers, normally amateurs, who are having a hard time getting their subject to smile. By saying cheese, most people form there mouths into what appears to be a smile like shape. Additionally, the absurdity of saying cheese for no apparent reason can incite the glee of smaller children.

As this practice became ingrained into modern society, it has taken on a simple role of a final warning before a photograph is taken. Often times subjects will simply use the phrase "say cheese" as a cue to enter their final pose and to smile, neglecting to actually say cheese.

Over the years, many other words have been used in place of cheese. For comedic effect, a photographer might say "Say ______" filling the blank with a word relevant to the event or action he is photographing. (Ex. "Say Wipe Out" during a sea side photograph) Other times a person will fill the blank with an absurdist or seemingly entirely random word of their choice.

Other languages have adopted this method, albeit with different words that sound similar to cheese to get the desired effect of shaping the mouth to form a smile.

[edit] Cultural References

Child Horror author R.L. Stine once wrote a book titled Say Cheese and Die about a young boy who found a camera that showed the people he took pictures of dead. Shortly after the picture was taken the people would acually die.